BOSTON — Would the state's current emergency plans prove adequate should a radiological accident occur at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station?

A Cape lawmaker will be lobbying today at the Statehouse for a bill that would require Massachusetts emergency management experts to re-evaluate preparedness measures related to nuclear events. A hearing before the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security has been set for 1 p.m.

The bill is one of a handful submitted a year ago by legislators from Barnstable and Essex counties, two areas in the state where residents could be affected by nuclear plants. Essex County borders the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant in New Hampshire.

If the bill being heard today is ultimately enacted, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, or MEMA, would be required to consider a long list of issues, including current radiological and meteorological monitoring, emergency notification procedures, public information and education, and the adequacy of the radiological shelters.

"The idea behind it is to make sure MEMA has looked at the emergency plan," said Sarah Peake, a Province­town Democrat and a sponsor of the bill.

"We feel MEMA hasn't given its hardest and best look," Peake said. "This is a way to force the conversation. It's a good starting point."

Joyce McMahon, spokeswoman for Entergy Corp., which owns and operates Pilgrim, said the company would be represented at the hearing by attorney Tom Joyce.

"Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station works closely with local, state and federal agencies and organizations, including the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, on emergency planning," McMahon said in an email. "Plans and scenarios are constantly updated, revised and tested, utilizing experts and state-of-the-art technology."

David Agnew, a co-founder of the Pilgrim watchdog group Cape Downwinders, said he would submit a written statement supporting Peake's proposal, noting the assessment of emergency plans "should have been done decades ago, and it certainly should have been done after Fukushima," a reference to the Japanese nuclear disaster of 2011.

Fellow Pilgrim plant watchdog William Maurer will attend today's hearing to address the committee about what he considers the lack of an adequate evacuation plan for the Cape.

"It's been a secret to Cape Codders that the bridges would be closed" in a nuclear emergency, said Maurer, a Falmouth resident. Currently the 10-mile emergency protection zones around nuclear plants are the only areas with formal evacuation and sheltering plans in place.

Emergency planners have said Cape drivers would likely be held at bay to allow residents to be evacuated first from the 10-mile zone.

A handful of other bills related to nuclear power plants and submitted in January 2013 remain pending before the Joint Committee on Public Health.

One measure would extend the emergency protection zone from a 10-mile radius around Pilgrim to 20 miles and would include all of Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket counties.

Other legislation would assess nuclear power plants up to $400,000 to cover the cost of expanded real-time air monitoring around the plants.

Peake said the fate of these bills will be settled by their respective committees next month.

"A bill can come out of committee with an 'ought to pass' recommendation or an 'ought not to pass,'" Peake said. "Obviously we're hoping for an 'ought to pass.'"

The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station has had more than its share of mechanical glitches and unplanned power-downs in the last year. Federal regulators, in fact, dropped the plant to the bottom nine in the country recently based on its poor performance.

Peake has made no secret of her opposition to the Pilgrim plant. "Ultimately, I'd love to work to close the plant down, do appropriate job retraining and have Plymouth made whole," she said.